DENVER, CO. - JANUARY 27: Bruce Young offers support during a protest at the Wellington Webb Building in Denver, CO on January 27, 2015. Protesters confronted the Denver District Attorney's Office on Tuesday, demanding transparency and justice after police fatally shot 17-year-old Jessica "Jessie" Hernandez the day before.

In 2015, seven people died at the hands of law enforcement in Denver, including six people who were shot in confrontations with police officers.

A seventh person died in custody at the Downtown Detention Center in a case that has been ruled a homicide and remains under investigation by Denver police.

Of the six fatal police shootings in the city, three involved Denver Police Department officers. Police from Aurora and Mountain View each were involved in a shooting. Another case involved officers from multiple jurisdictions who were serving a warrant in Denver, and officials have not identified who fired at the suspect. All of the dead were minorities.

Overall, 13 people were shot by police in Denver, the highest number of officer-involved shootings in 15 years, according to the Denver district attorney’s office, which investigates cases when someone is wounded or killed by a police officer.

In 2014, there were eight police shootings, and four were fatal, according to the DA’s office, which posts investigations on its website.

In 2015, the shootings led to protests, internal investigations and, in one case, a major change in Denver Police Department tactics.

Authorities do not have an explanation as to why police shootings are on the rise.

Denver Police Chief Robert White said officers often have no choice when other people choose to be violent.

“Our officers, like most officers in the country, are trained to only use their firearms when their life or someone else’s life is in harm’s way,” he said.

But he said he is aware of the sensitivity surrounding police shootings. And his department works hard to train officers on how to respond to violent confrontations in an effort to avoid shootings.

“The bar has been raised as to the expectations the community has when it comes to police, and we need to make sure we are training our officers so that they can meet those expectations,” White said.

After a series of shootings that involved moving cars in 2014 and 2015, the Denver Police Department banned officers from shooting into a moving car. Officers also received more training on their tactics for approaching cars and how to react when a driver pushes the gas pedal instead of the brakes.

Since then, no Denver officers have fired at a moving car, White said.

Of the six fatal police shootings, three people were armed with guns and one was holding a knife.

Three of the cases happened after police tried to pull over cars, two of which had been reported stolen. Two others occurred while police attempted to arrest suspects in felony cases. Another happened after police were called to an assault with an armed suspect.

The year’s first fatal police shooting came on Jan. 26, when two Denver officers fired at a stolen car being driven by 17-year-old Jessica Hernandez. She was unarmed.

The second fatal shooting came in July when a Denver officer shot Paul Castaway, 35, who was holding a knife when he turned toward officers during a foot pursuit.

But the remaining fatal shootings — and the in-custody death — all happened late in the year. All of those, along with two nonfatal police shootings during that period, remain under investigation.

“They came one after another starting in November,” said Lynn Kimbrough, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.

Morrissey and his two senior chief deputies investigate all officer-involved shootings. The investigations can be time-consuming, depending on the number of officers involved and other factors such as toxicology tests that are part of autopsy reports, Kimbrough said.

“They won’t necessarily finish them in chronological order,” she said.

The shootings almost always generate criticism of police and the DA.

The Denver DA’s office has not prosecuted a police officer in an on-duty shooting since 1993. Morrissey has not filed charges after any officer-involved shootings.

Qusair Mohamedbhai, a Denver attorney who often represents the families of those killed by police, said more training is needed to address police biases toward minorities.

Of the six killed in Denver, four were Hispanic, one was black and one was American Indian.

“Split-second decisions that otherwise would receive patience result in a quick pulling of the trigger in communities of color,” Mohamedbhai said. “Law enforcement is not having courageous enough conversations about these biases that exist.”

Noelle Phillips, a Nashville native and a Western Kentucky University journalism school grad, covers law enforcement and public safety for The Denver Post. She has spent more than 20 years in the newspaper world. During that time, she's covered everything from rural towns in the Southeast to combat in the Middle East. The Denver Post is her fifth newspaper and her first in the West.

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